Civil servants told to prepare for return of power-sharing, say Stormont sources.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/civil-servants-told-to-prepare-for-return-of-power-sharing-say-stormont-sources/a541342449.html

Andrew Madden
Today at 06:00

Civil servants have been told to prepare for the return of power-sharing before Christmas.

Senior officials have informed line managers to tell their staff to prepare for the possible, even likely, return of ministers in the coming weeks, according to Stormont sources.

Northern Ireland has been without a functioning government since February 2022 when Paul Givan resigned as First Minister as part of the DUP’s protest over post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Caretaker ministers remained in place until the end of last October.

It is understood, however, that plans are being made behind the scenes for a potential return to the Executive table.

Line managers are understood to have been briefed in Teams meetings over the past fortnight.

One source said: “It is being kept low-key, but staff are being put on notice that a return of ministers could happen soon.

“For example, some staff who have been working from home much of the time have been put on notice that, if and when ministers return, they will need to be out and about with them, and to prepare for that.

“There is a sense behind the scenes that something could happen.”

A second Stormont source said that, while there had been rumours of a return of power-sharing at a few other times since the stalemate began, the current “mood music” is “much more positive”.

Others said there was also discussions about which ministries parties may select and which MLAs may be in line for a seat at the Executive table.

Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy has been strongly mooted as the next Economy Minister.

Talks between the DUP and the UK Government aimed at restoring the institutions have been ongoing, with Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris saying last week that the negotiations were in their “final phases” and were more positive than they had been previously.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, however, has said that “significant gaps” remain in the talks, while at the same time hinting that a return to Stormont could be on the horizon.

“There is a lot of co-operation, a lot of talking between the parties, that has been going on for weeks in anticipation that at some stage, hopefully soon, we may be in a position to see a government formed,” he said last week.

“But we are not there yet. There are still gaps to be closed, there are still issues that need to be resolved in our dialogue with the Government, but we are working each and every week to resolve those issues.”

“I think that we have made progress, but there are still significant gaps in terms of what we need to ensure that the new arrangements which replace the Northern Ireland Protocol work for Northern Ireland, that they enable us to trade with the rest of the United Kingdom in a way where those barriers created by the protocol have been removed in terms of the movement of goods from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, or Great Britain to Northern Ireland.”

Sir Jeffrey added that, while he would not give a predicted timeframe for any deal, he hoped it could happen “sooner rather than later”.

In the past 18 months there has been speculation at various points regarding the return of the institutions, only to come to nothing.

During an event at Stormont last week, political leaders were pictured together in a rare showing of apparent unity while meeting a US trade delegation.

by Browns_right_foot